Uwe Rösler cited several reasons for his first loss as coach of VfL Bochum. For him, too, the 1-2 defeat against Dynamo Dresden will serve as a lesson.

On Friday evening, Uwe Rösler suffered his first loss as coach of VfL Bochum. Against Dynamo Dresden, second-to-last in the 2. Bundesliga, the final score was 1-2. And that was avoidable for several reasons.

The 57-year-old was still satisfied with the start. “The first 10, 15 minutes were good. We wanted to keep the tempo high, take quick throw-ins, and use the momentum. Some of our corner kicks were good. With a little more luck, we could have taken the lead there,” he said.

But then came an inexplicable half-hour in which VfL completely sank into passivity and reacted far too slowly and sluggishly on both the 0-1 and 0-2 goals.

“After that, we had 30 bad minutes,” admitted Rösler, adding: “We weren’t able to build any pressure; collectively, we weren’t good at closing down.”

After the break, the Bochum players also showed a completely different side. “It was hard for me to take the young players off. But I think that helped,” said the coach about his substitutions at halftime. U20 national team players Kjell Wätjen and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht were substituted, with Koji Miyoshi and Philipp Hofmann coming on.

The former set up the 1-2 goal by Cajetan Lenz with his cross, while the latter provided more presence in the box and won a penalty, which Francis Onyeka missed.

“In the second half, we were completely in control and close to a draw,” explained Rösler. And yet: “But we had 23 shots, three of which were on target. Dresden had 11 shots, four or five of which were on target.” We lacked efficiency. “We should have tested Dresden’s goalkeeper even more.”

But one point seemed to bother Rösler in particular: “For me, this game is a lesson that I can’t always take everything for granted when half the team is out for nearly two weeks,” the coach lamented.

He was referring in particular to the junior national team players Wätjen, Alfa-Ruprecht, Onyeka, and Lenz. Rösler was self-critical: “Maybe I should have made substitutions from the start. I don’t blame the team; we played a very good second half.”